The Fairbanks Collections at the University of California, Los Angeles

THE FAIRBANKS COLLECTIONS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES WILLIAM D. PATTISON University of California, Los Angeles Harold W. Fairbanks (1860-1952), an important contributor to Calif ornia geography, is represented by a substantial store of both written and pictorial materials at the University of California, Los Angeles.1 These records, available to interested geographers, are distributed among four collections, each of which is identified below, together with its ac companying background information. Geological publications. Fairbanks' earliest publications were in geo logy. His first article appeared in the American Geologist in 1890, the year of his arrival in California from the East, and his last important geo logical contribution, a U.S.G.S. folio on a part of the California coast ranges, came out in 1904. During the intervening years Fairbanks wrote more than thirty articles, about half of them reports on original field research and the remainder on popular interpretations. Nearly all were concerned with aspects of California stratigraphy. In the Geology Li brary at U.C. L.A. may be found not only a large share of Fairbanks' geo logical publications, but also his geological bibliography, a recently pre pared list believed to be complete. Geographical publications. Moved by a strong desire to teach, Fair banks chose the physical geography of California as his subject in several articles for teachers and in a little children's book produced shortly before 1900. As his geological publications diminished in number thereafter and finally ceased, school geography increasingly claimed his attention, and his writing lost its original restriction to physical geography alone. He came eventually to regard himself not as a geologist helping geography but as an educator specializing in geography. Fairbanks' edu cational production reached a climax in the 1920's with a set of graded geographies, the Fairbanks New Progressive series, for which he is still well remembered by many teachers. At U .C. L.A. all of Fairbanks four teen geography texts may be found in the University Library, Depart ment of Special Collections. Kept with these books are outline-booklets and other associated published material, including offprints of articles on geography teaching. A new, exhaustive bibliography of Fairbanks' pub lished contributions to school geography is on deposit with this collection. Correspondence and book manuscripts. Surviving correspondence, dating mainly from Fairbanks' years of writing for the schools, has its own story to tell of geographic education in California. Here one finds person ally-oriented reports pertaining to the Geography Committee of the Bay Area (1913) and to Southern California's Committee on Minimum Essen tials in Geography (1918). In addition there are views on various 1 On Fairbanks' career see William D. Pattison, "Harold W. Fairbanks, Cali fornia Geographer," Journal of Geography, Vol. LIX, No. 8 (November 1960), pp. 351-357. 55 geography textbooks as well as a recurrent commentary by Fairbanks on the steady rise of the unified social studies at the expense of geography. From among surviving book manuscripts, particular interest attaches to the typescript of two unpublished works, The Problem of Geography (1933), a discussion of the relation of school geography to other fields of study, and The Geography of California (1937), a lengthy book which would have been, if published, Fairbanks' fourth general geography of California. The three published versions, each on a different plan, appear ed in 1903, 1912, and 1920. Both correspondence and book manuscripts are in the custody of the U.C.L.A. Library's Department of Special Collec tions. Photographs. In pursuit of his geological and geographical interests, Fairbanks took photographs which may, in the long run, gain more recognition for him than any of his written work. His principal photo graphic period was early and relatively brief, extending from 1895 to 1907. During that time he ranged over most of California on foot, bicycle, and horseback making photographic studies with a view camera which now possess unusual historical value. More than a thousand of these photos went into the making of glass lantern slides for sale to schools and colleges, and many of the same pictures, alc,ng with others from this period, found use as illustrations in his books. In the Department of Geography at U .C.L.A. today nearly four thousand Fairbanks negatives, largely consis ing of 5 x 7 inch glass plates, are kept upder a wide range of subject headings for inspection and reproduction. Shelved with the negatives is a representative selection of Fairbanks' slides. The present author, instrumental in organizing the Fairbanks collec tions, wishes to acknowledge the generosity of Miss Helena K. Fairbanks who, as her father's heir, has donated to U.C.L.A. most of the published material and all of the correspondence, manuscripts, and photographs dis cussed above. 56 .

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